A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors. We will always stop for a photo, or to hit a rope swing… Rubber side up!

Where did Prolly is Not Probably go?

It is still here, and then some. PiNP was one person’s opinion and voice. Now we are a collective – a community of diverse opinions and rich stories.

What does the Radavist mean?

Rad + Atavist = RADAVIST

Why does a porpoise surf a wave, or a sea otter slide down a rock? Atavism is a primal trait in humans and animals that drives us to do what we do – what ought to come naturally. Atavism is why we ride the way we ride; From mashing the city on a track bike to shredding the trails on full suspension. Take the time to get rad.

When I first saw this frameset, I was in love. Why? Well, when a company like Ritchey makes a hardtail mountain bike that only a few months prior was something you had to order from a framebuilder, you know they’re paying attention. Before the Timberwolf, Ritchey’s mountain bike offerings were built with cross-country geometries. Personally, I like slack front ends and longer travel forks. They still climb great but the difference in descending is noticeable, especially after getting bucked for hours on end while riding our Southern California trails. Yeah, the Timberwolf is a new breed of mountain bikes, from a company founded by one of the forefathers of the sport. The best part is, you can get rowdy on this bike for hundreds less than a custom frame.

At $899, the Timberwolf comes as a frame with bright orange paint and classic Ritchey logos. Or you can buy it complete, as equipped here for $3,499 (minus the dropper post.) When people email me asking what mountain bike frame they should start out with, if buying used isn’t an option, I point them to the Timberwolf. Why? Let me break it down…

Shred for Your Buck

Yes, $899 is around half as much as most builders charge for custom steel hardtail and while there are other production bikes on the market similar to the Timberwolf, they aren’t nearly as light, nor as nimble feeling. The Timberwolf feels lively and while a lot of that has to do with the geometry, the Ritchey tubing definitely aids in that.

Complete but Not Cheap

Some people would say that $3,499 is a lot of money to drop on a complete steel hardtail, yet if you look at the components, Ritchey didn’t exactly skimp on anything. The Ritchey Trail wheels are super solid and plenty wide, with an internal width of 25mm. They weigh around 1650g for the set and I didn’t have to true them once in the few months that I was able to ride this bike. Next up, the drivetrain. SRAM’s 1x drivetrain doesn’t skip a beat, and it comes with the XD 10-42t cassette. The bike I reviewed came with Guide brakes, although Ritchey’s spec sheet calls for SLX.

The Rock Shox Revelation fork was plenty capable of tackling my local trails, yet took some getting used to after riding a Pike for so long. It’s not nearly as stiff, nor as heavy, yet I was still able to dial in the settings to my liking with ease. All this gets steered by the 35mm Ritchey Trail stem and bar, which save for the length of the stem, was a super solid setup. Personally, I’d rather run a 50mm stem, but since even the size large is a little short on me, the longer stem helped with fit. My only upgrade I found necessary on this build was a dropper post, so a Rock Shox Reverb I had in my parts bin worked fine, except for the fact that it wasn’t the Stealth verson and had to be run along the top tube, rather than through the stealth port on the seat tube.

Point It and Go

Yes, hardtails take a bit of finesse to be able to hang with guys on full suspensions, and I’d argue their geometry is more important to maintaining speed and control than most modern full squish trail bikes, where the travel will soak up any of your riding mishaps and nuances. On a hardtail, if you line something up wrong, you’ll pay for it.

While the full suspension market relies on incremental improvements, hardtails have to follow suit with leaps and bounds. For instance, before Scott made their bikes with a 69º head angle, you had to look to the likes of Engin and Cromag to get a slack head angle. Now a lot of builders are going as low at 67º and even as I’m typing this, I can hear someone’s comment being posted about how other companies are going even slacker… Bottom brackets are getting lower and with the longer dropper posts becoming available, the front triangles are getting even smaller. Not to mention boost rear ends and yokes allowing for plus sized tires. Yeah, today’s hardtails are a different beast from what Tom was building in his garage all those years ago.

Ritchey took a stance with the design of the Timberwolf. They’re comfortable with a 140mm fork and a 67º head angle. For the masses who would or have bought this bike, it’s more than capable. If you wanna pack in a lotta rubber, the frame will clear a 2.4″ tire with ease. You can do everything from bikepacking on it, to racing XC or even just going out for a full day’s worth of singletrack.

Final Thoughts

The Timberwolf looks great, rides great and has components that won’t leave ya stranded on the trail. It weighs in around 28lbs as shown for the size large with a dropper and a bottle cage. You can buy it as a frameset and swap your old parts over, or pull the trigger on the complete build. Either way, you won’t be disappointed. In an age where full suspension bikes can exceed $10,000 for a complete, it’s nice to be able to shred a bike like this for under $3,500. If it were mine, I’d keep it as pictured here and ride it into the sunset every chance I’d get. As with all Ritchey frames, you can add a Heritage paint job for $450! A commando-painted Timberwolf would be so sick!

The dude down below is right! Parks in the East Bay and Marin are more than perfect grounds for ripping a hard tail. I moved on from FS to Hard tail, mainly financially and never felt happier. Just wait until you start dropping down on French Trail early mornings. Your soul will lit!

boomforeal

i’ve usually found that people who start riding on full suspension mountain bikes progress more quickly and have more fun ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Matt O’Donnell

And I’ve always heard that people that start on rigid or hardtail develop better bike handling skills since they’re not “relying” on the forgiveness of full suspension.

breed007

For your first bike, don’t overthink it. Just get one and ride. You’ll figure out what type of bike you prefer in time.

boomforeal

i’ve heard that too, exclusively from older male riders who learned to ride on rigid bikes or hardtails

it may be true that “people that start on rigid or hardtail develop better bike handling skills”. but its probably even more true that such people are more likely to give up on the sport than those who start on full suspension bikes

regardless of your skill level, a full suspension bike provides more control, is more comfortable to ride, and will let you ride difficult terrain more easily, and ride more quickly in just about any circumstance

if you’re either a) hell bent on being a tough guy, and not some sissy who “relies” on the forgiveness of full suspension, b) really worried about what older male riders will think of you, c) interested in buying a bike you can take pictures of and post online – by all means get a hardtail

if you’re genuinely interested in getting into mountain biking, progressing and having fun, in my opinion, you’re better off buying a fully. you can get a descent one for the same ammount as what you’d be spending on this ritchey

Matt O’Donnell

Those certainly aren’t the reasons I’m looking to get a mountain bike (okay, maybe a tiny tiny bit C, let’s be honest, I do have a Jordan Low paint job on a bike, so I like pretty bikes). But my main two reasons are to: have fun and get better a bike handling in a way that will also help in my cx riding.

breed007

Hardtails also give you the option of saying “Yeah, dude, I’d hit that drop, but I’m on my hardtail.” FS bikes don’t have that option.

I don’t know about your a) b) or c) points, but I just prefer them. People have preferences that aren’t outlined by such cynical categories.

boomforeal

sorry john, did you miss the part where i mention i only have a hardtail? i totally prefer them, and would ride nothing but if i could get away with it – but as you say i have access to some pretty hectic trails

those three “cynical” categories were the kinds of new riders i can see being better off learning on a hardtail. again (unless you’re riding nothing but superbuff trails or have a really limited budget), in my opinion, AS SOMEONE NEW TO MOUNTAIN BIKING you’ll have more fun learning and riding on a fully

stateofnonreturn

You would on Second Divide and have a hell of a time :) I actually found the chewed up part of Sunrise more demanding and challenging than the 2nd Divide. Second Divide felt like the holy grail of Nor Cal Mountain Biking, even on a hard tail!

I’d say the Kona Explosif seems like a pretty close competitor. Bit of a stouter fork with the 34, and the option to run single speed with the sliding dropouts. Still a great steel frame, with a really classic looking silhouette. They come as 120mm up front, but a lot of people are converting them to 140mm with a $50 part if you feel like you need more travel / slacker angles.

Good call. The Explosif would be a super fun first trail bike. I have a steel Kona Honzo in my garage and I’ve also ridden the current crop of Ritcheys. The Konas are beefier/heavier, a bit more oriented towards descending ( slacker and longer ) and can really take some abuse. The Ritcheys are a hair more xc style and get a lighter/livlier tube set. For you tall people out there, the Konas also have a legit xl size.

Trevor H

Man I wish this were offered in an XL frameset (I’m 6’4″); I’ve been waiting for Ritchey to update the geo chart and add that as an option…

Yeah, I ride XL frames across the board. The large was a bit too short for me but I made it work.

neil

@johnprolly:disqus how tall are you? I know sizing for bikes goes way beyond simple height, but I always see you mention that you ride XL frames. I’m just curious as someone who has always struggled with Mountain bike sizing at 6’2″between L or XL.

boomforeal

how’d you like that front tire?

donttest

Personally I think that the Salsa Timberjack is a much better value. Sure the Timberjack doesn’t have the fancy wheelset, it weighs a lb more than the Timberwolf, and is aluminum. But the Timberjack can take the coveted 27.5+ tire. In terms of shreddibility thats key. Or a 29er tire for those fast fire roads. And at $1400 you still got coin left over.

Black is the way to go, dude! They crushed it in the aesthetics dept for ’17

Dexter

Don’t know how well known they are over the water but On-One make a mighty similar frame (the 456Evo2 or 45650B for you larger wheeled peeps) for peanuts in comparison. I’ve got the 26″ 456Evo2 and it blows my socks off every time I ride it. UK designed, Taiwan made but with considerable care and attention. Also comes in Raw which shows off the brazing which is cool AF.

fpjoran

They’re nice. But the tubing used in On-One frames is quite heavy. Still great value though.

hansgman

“Taiwan made but..”

These days who other than asian shops have more experience with building bikes?

No one is arguing that Taiwan factories can build great bicycle frames.

jbkenney

Transition TransAm 27.5 has been around for years. Built around a 130mm fork, 67.5 HT, 418 chainstay, clears 2.5s. Also sold as a complete for under $2k with a no nonsense build. Shame they don’t have it for the 2017 model year…

Oy! Why do we need to two names for the same wheels use…especially when 27″>29er>27.5″. Lol.

Andy Moore

I’m far from orange averse, so perhaps I failed to note the sensory onslaught you are sensitive to.

Doesn’t it seem a little over the top to call a single offering (with custom paint optional, esp) an *orange obsession*?

Benny Watson

It’s a football thing.

LeoK

I was looking for a full suspension bike until I kept finding myself admiring steel hardtails such as this Timberwolf. That’s when I decided to get a modern steel hardtail. I was planning to build up a steel Honzo from scratch and then found out about the Chromag Wideangle by accident. I pulled the trigger and couldn’t have been happier. I’ve ridden it everywhere including Snow Summit and Mammoth bike parks. It can handle single diamond trails with ease. Double diamonds are doable, but they’re beyond my comfort/skill level.

Oh, that’s interesting. I’m in the U.S. but the default region that came up was “International.” I was able to manually change it to “USA” and now see the $899.95 price. Cheers!

floody

Heck yes a commando painted ‘wolf would be sick!

It’s a petty gripe I have, however, I’ll have it anyway.
Kinked downtubes give me the sh!ts. On a do it all hardtail…I dunno, is a remote a necessity? Like…really? I’d like to see more of these types of bike set up for a manual adjuster and an external lower cup, with a straight downtube.

Matt O’Donnell

Worth noting that this weekend they are knocking $1000 off the complete on their website.